Tag Archives: record labels

CD’s tangibility

Great CD artwork

The Audio CD will soon be replaced by digital downloads (iTunes, Napster) or by credit card sized items that act as a prepaid phone card; go online, scratch the back of the card, and download the album to your digital music player of choice. These steps are inevitable as the Internet age has made the physical CD obsolete as the medium’s message has changed, digitally speaking – the audio digital music device is the message (iPod, Zune), no longer the CD. One thing that will be missed from the tangible feeling of CD’s is the album artwork – which in the past few years have made a resurgence as record labels look frantically for ways to hold onto the traditional model. I am sure we all can recall a time when one of the best part of buying a CD was ripping the plastic, and opening the album artwork to see the credit, the pictures, lyrics, etc. That was a personal feeling and connection between the purchaser and the artist; which gave the CD far more relevance than the audio on the optical disk could ever have. Enough about that, here are some classic album artwork, all the way from the vinyl to the plastic:

Michael Jackson – Dangerous

Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist

Kool & the Gang – Still Cool

Radiohead – Hail to the Thief

Van Halen – 1984

Kanye West – Graduation

I will miss this aspect of the music experience – as the last CD I recall buying was Kanye’s Graduation … even thought the iPod’s Cover Flow is cool, it just can’t ‘touch’ the affect of a physical CD.

Biggie Smalls Influence: Formula & Posse Syndrome

As with the launch of the movie ‘Notorious’, a tale of Notorious B.I.G.’s life and times, let us take time to reflect on not only his great talent, but on the impact that he had on the game.

A rundown of his accomplishments:Ready to DieReleased 1994RIAA citified 4x Platinum

Life After DeathReleased 1997RIAA certified Diamond (10x Platinum)

Born AgainReleased 1999
RIAA certified 2x Platinum

Duets: The Final ChapterReleased 2005RIAA certified Platinum

Greatest HitsReleased 2007
RIAA certified Gold

No wonder Bad Boy is still eating, you got to really take a look at what Life After Death did, because it was dropped as a double disc (so it was priced higher than a single CD), and it sold 10 million worldwide. In terms of the influence, Ready to Die and Life After Death both changed the direction of Hip-Hop by mastering the art of creating a ‘crossover’ hit (mixing hardcore lyrics with an R&B singer on the chorus), and it laid the groundwork of how to maintain ‘keeping it real’. Before an album was released, Biggie was wise to work the mixtape DJ market – that would involve leaking tracks to DJ’s with national distribution, and giving certain DJ’s exclusive freestyles. All of this was for the goal that when the album dropped, those in the underground would be attracted to Biggie’s lyrical ability, and the general market would be taken in by the crossover appeal. This formula has since been copied exponentially by the likes of Jay-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Eminem, and the like.

Bring the Posse Syndrome

Another pervasive influence that Biggie had on the hip-hop genre was the ‘bring the posse syndrome’, that is, once you get successful, create a label, and have your friends release albums and songs under your new label. Biggie only had a chance to try this out with now defunct group Junior M.A.F.I.A., that had a successful album (going Gold) and spawned the careers of Lil’ Cease and the infamous Lil’ Kim. Biggie had an understanding of how the music industry game worked; similar to the Pimp trade or a Pyramid scheme – the higher you are at the top, the more you can make off of others. Well, in the music game, it works that if you can sign them to your label, you can get a piece of their recording and publishing deals. Current circa, every rapper that is somewhat successful has copied this blueprint, from:

As you can see, some of these worked out very well in the cases of Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Eminem, and 50 Cent, and not so well as with the case of Nelly, Snoop, and others.

Trying to figure out a witty way to end this piece, but I will just end it by saying the demise of Biggie and Tupac taught us what REAL beef is, and what can happen – and I don’t think that none of these Internet Gangsters want to see that. Biggie will always be remembered, and his influence lives on in the current generation of hip-hop and beyond.

New Model for the Old Model Recording Boys

It seems like YouTube is finally emerging with a business model, well, I don’t know if its for YouTube, or for others. Universal Music seems to be generating a substantial piece of change from its partnership with YouTube:

“(YouTube) is not like radio, where it’s just promotional,” said Caraeff, who heads up Universal’s digital group. “It’s a revenue stream, a commercial business. It’s growing tremendously. It’s up almost 80 percent for us year-over-year in the U.S. in terms of our revenue from this category.””(YouTube) is not like radio, where it’s just promotional,” said Caraeff, who heads up Universal’s digital group. “It’s a revenue stream, a commercial business. It’s growing tremendously. It’s up almost 80 percent for us year-over-year in the U.S. in terms of our revenue from this category.”

This is encouraging for the recording industry, as the old model of CD’s are dying, and record labels need to find creative/new ways to market their products. For 2008, Universal Music artists dominate the most watched viewed videos on YouTube; and Universal shares the advertising revenue with YouTube. Last week, Warner Music canceled a partnership agreement with Youtube over copyright issues. What Warner music needs to understand is that in this day of age, vigilantly trying to protect the availability of ‘free music’ will have adverse side effects; labels need to embrace the digital technology, as Universal Music is saying that Youtube is actually increasing its album sales.

Hopefully, the other record labels will get hip to this trend, and find better ways to market their music than on an oddly shaped plastic disc.